Creflo Dollar - Does Faith Require Works? - Part 1
If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 10 verse 38. And again, agree with me that I have sweet lips this morning 'cause the Bible says, «Sweet lips increase learning,» right? One of the things that I’m understanding is if you spent a whole lot of time thinking a particular way for years and years and for some of you all your life, it’s quite a challenge when presenting something that goes against that way of thinking to receive it real quickly and I understand that. But we’ve got, we’ve got to be willing if we say we believe the word of God and if that is what we live by, I mean, we can’t say we believe the Word of God and we live by the Word of God and then when we see something in the Word of God our tradition becomes more valuable to us than the Word of God.
And it’s all right to change. I think that change and flexibility is a good thing. I think there’s something wrong if you’re the same for the next ten years maybe that indicates you hadn’t grown. But I think we’ve gotta be willing to grow, we gotta be willing to evaluate what we thought at one time versus what we are now seeing in the the Word I just think there should be a consistent evolving towards maturity as we go. If not then you’ll find yourself in tradition stuck in a traditional way of believing and you just only believe that way 'cause you’ve always believed that way. And that’s not healthy to believe a certain way just 'cause you always believe that way. God intended us we’re on this path where he intends for us to mature and to develop and to grow and to understand more as we go down this journey than we did when we first started, okay?
Imagine if you were a 2-year-old and today you’re 40 and you still understanding like a 2-year-old. You follow what I’m saying? And it’s the same way. Not to say that certain things were wrong as you were going together, as you were growing up, but you’re finding clarity. Everybody say, «Clarity,» okay. And you’re becoming, you’re seeing precision in what you’re doing. And that’s all I’m trying to do. You know, people say, «Creflo Dollar, rewriting the Bible». I ain’t rewriting the Bible, I’m just reading it, okay?
And so what we wanna do today is this subject is so important today as we deal with true faith and I wanna start off with this scripture here in Hebrews 10:38 in the King James and in the NLT. I really wanna make sure that I have sweet lips today so we can increase learning and sometimes I don’t wanna go back into my past experience and then get emotional about it and get the fussing over it and then you’re like, «What’s wrong with him»? I want you to get this and I want us to grow together, amen. Verse 38, King James, he says this, «Now the just shall live by,» what? «But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. If any man draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him».
Now, the just are those who’ve been declared righteous. Now, the just shall live by faith. So the day you got born again, you were declared righteous, okay? Now, those of us who have gotten born again, we are now declared righteous, okay. And that means now that we have to find out how we’re supposed to live now that we’ve been declared righteous, all right? And the NLT that same verse of scripture he says, «And my righteous ones will live by faith,» okay? Or those who you… you’re righteous by faith, okay? And you can see why I taught that two weeks of teachings on righteousness before we got here. We are righteous because we believe in Jesus and the day we believe in Jesus, he declares us righteous.
Now, you might not be living totally right, but you’re on a journey, you’re getting, you’re getting there. You’re better now than you were last year. You’re getting there, but you’re righteous by faith, okay? And by faith that means you’re righteous, you’re standing before God as if you’ve never sinned because your righteousness is based on your stance now that you’re in Christ. I am righteous because I am in Christ. That’s the only way I’m righteous because of my status and where I am in Christ. «And my righteous one will live by faith». Now the Lord spoke to me and he said, «I’m about to increase my glory as you begin to increase men’s understanding of the life of faith and living by faith».
And so I wanna dig into this and clarify some things, move some things aside so you can see better. So that you will understand that this life of faith doesn’t involve you adding works of the flesh to faith in order to get what grace is made available. Now let’s go to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8 through 10. Show you what I’m talking about here now. Ephesians 2 verse 8, he says, «For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourself; it is the gift of God». And then he goes, next verse, verse 9, «Not of works,» not of works of the law, not of performance, «Lest any man should boast about it».
So you can’t boast about something that you didn’t do anything to make happen. He says verse 10, «For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works». And so you’re saved by grace so that good works can flow out of you, all right, but you don’t add good works to faith in order to get salvation, you know what I’m saying? So he says, «Which God has before ordained that we should walk in them». Now let’s go back to verse 8 and let’s begin this morning. In verse 8, he says this, «For by grace are you saved». Grace, you’re saved by grace.
Now, remember the word saved does not just mean you’re born again by grace. I showed you last week that this word save comes from one of the Greek words is «Sozo,» and it talks about your preservation, it talks about your soundness, it talks about your safety, it talks about your healing. It talks about your deliverance from evil. It’s ultimately all of the finished works that Jesus has made available to you, he says, is your salvation. So I need you to renew your thinking that when you see, «For by grace are you saved,» that doesn’t just mean you got born again. That means by grace you are healed. By grace you are sound. By grace you are delivered. By grace you have safety. By grace you have all of these, the finished works of Jesus, by grace, which means all of those finished works of Jesus, soundness, safety, security, provision, all of those are gifts of grace. You’re saved by grace.
In other words, your salvation or your «Sozo» came as a gift to you without your performance and without you bringing anything to the table, just cause God decided he wanted to give it to you, okay. So that’s what a gift is. Is somebody deciding they want to do something for you. You didn’t earn it and in some cases you didn’t even deserve it. And here God says, «You didn’t deserve it, you didn’t earn it». So by grace you got all of this soundness, born again, deliverance. Oh, so when you see saved or salvation, know it’s talking about all of those things that are finished because of Jesus Christ. All right, so we got that. But now here’s the part that we’re focusing in on.
«For by grace are you saved». But how did you receive what grace has made available to you? How did you receive your salvation that grace made available to you? You received it through, watch this, faith. So I know everybody in the room is pretty solid on faith. We’ve been preaching it for centuries. And here I am coming to say, I just don’t know if we really got this thing right because we should be seeing more glory. So I have to go and examine your receiver. For by grace are you save and you receive it through faith. You get it through faith. You have access through faith.
Real quick. Romans 5 and 2, real quick. Romans 5 and 2, in King James and Romans 4:16 in King James. So the just shall live by faith and, you know, he says, «By whom also we have access to the grace of God». We have access to the grace of God that gives us as a gift, salvation and all this other stuff. We have access by faith. «We have access by faith into this grace. We have access by faith into this grace». Our faith gives us access to what grace is made available. Everybody on the bus got that, right? All right, go to Romans 4:16. I’m not gonna miss a corner this morning. Romans 4:16. He says, «Therefore it is of,» what? «Faith that it might be by,» what? Whoa. So if you’re gonna get what’s by grace, he says, it is gonna be of faith. It is gonna be of faith.
Look at this in the NLT, verse 16. Look at this in the NLT, Romans 4:16, and he says this, «So the promise is received,» how? «By faith, it is given as a free gift,» but the free gift is received by faith. See what we’ve been doing is using our faith to try to get what grace has already given. We’ve been using our faith to try to earn gifts. You can’t earn a gift. We’ve been using our faith to try to make the gift. We’ve been using our faith to try to create the gift. Grace has already presented the gift. You get what’s already finished through faith. You receive it through faith. You have access through faith. Man, we gotta know what this faith, if we ain’t straight on nothing, we got to be straight on this faith thing, all right.
Now, here’s what I wanna talk about today. How can salvation be not of works, we’ll go back to Ephesians 2 and 8. I got one more thing to say before we start. Ephesians 2 and 8. No, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, God said, «For by grace are you saved,» you get it through faith, «And that,» now I’ve studied homiletically and you have to get real, it’s the most boringest thing in the whole world. Bunch of boring reading about Eastern religion, Western religion to try to come up with what do we think that is referring to and what do we think it is referring to. And most people, we understand grace is a gift. Absolutely we understand salvation is a gift. But we also must know that faith is a gift. And if you’re reading this correctly, «For by grace are you saved through faith; and that faith not of yourself. That faith is the gift of God».
Now, many will say, «Well, well, now, that referring to salvation and it referring to salvation, that’s cool too». I mean if you want to get real technical, faith is a gift, salvation is a gift, and grace is a gift. But what we got to understand, «And that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God». I believe that it is saying, and may God correct us all when we get to heaven because we know in part. That means nobody knows it all. We know in part and so we’ll take our part to heaven and somebody else will take their part to heaven and God will just show all of us how small our parts were. But until we get there, this is the part that I believe I understand. It is referring to faith being a gift and faith is not of yourself, and faith is a gift of God.
Verse 9, and faith is not of works lest any man should boast. In other words, he’s talking about, you are boasting about what you did to get it. That’s why I believe it’s referring to faith. There’s a tendency to boast about what you did to get it. Now, in light of this, I wanna ask the question, how can salvation be not of works when faith is required? Because most of us, we understand that you have to have some works and I’m saying, how can, how can salvation be not of works when faith is required? And what am I saying here? When there’s work required, we equate faith with the work to get it. Does faith, here’s the issue, does faith require works? Does faith require works?
Now I wish I could say, just give you one answer, but you know, people are just so smart and boy, you just got to go through things and let them see it with their smart self. We just gotta make sure we all get it. Sweet lips, sweet lips. We gotta make sure that they all get it, right? All right, now, so let’s go through a series of scriptures real quick. Are you ready? Now, does faith require works? That’s what we’re trying to discover. Our salvation depends solely upon who? Jesus. 2 Corinthians chapter 5:21. Turn there in the King James. Our salvation depends solely upon Jesus. He is our substitute. He’s taking our sins penalty upon himself.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, «For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin». Jesus, who had never sinned was made to be sin for us who knew no sin. «That we might be made the righteousness of God» and we being made righteous, knew no righteousness. So Jesus took upon himself our sins and we took upon Jesus his righteousness, glory to God. So salvation depends solely upon Jesus. Righteousness depends solely upon Jesus. Take Jesus out of the picture, we can’t be righteous, we can’t be saved, we can’t be redeemed 'cause it depends solely upon Jesus.
All right, look at John 1:29. John 1:29. Our salvation is solely upon Jesus. John 1:29. He says, «The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, 'Behold the Lamb of God.'» They see Jesus and call Jesus the Lamb of God, «Which taketh away the sin of the world». So he is our Savior from sin. He takes away sin from the world. Now look at this. Hebrews 12 and 2 in the TPT. The passing translation. Hebrews 12 and 2. The Bible says that Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith, right? All right, so watch this. «We look away from the natural realm,» glory to God, «and we fasten our gaze onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection». Oh glory. «His example is this: Because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his, he endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now he sits exalted at the right hand on the throne of God»!
I go back to the beginning of this. He birthed it. Jesus birthed faith within us. So how you gonna say that? Well, I mean, he said it again in Romans, Romans 12. He says he has given to every man the measure of faith. Where did it come from? Him. Well, what about the law? You don’t need faith to live by the law 'cause the law is clear. If you don’t do this, you’ll die. If you do this, you get blessed. You either do it and get blessed or don’t do it and die or get cursed. You don’t need faith for the law. But when we got Jesus, Jesus birthed faith within us and he leads us forward in faith’s perfection. So to try to perfect your faith without Jesus is you trying to perfect your faith in your own ability and self-effort.
All right, let’s go. So the work necessary to provide salvation was fully accomplished by Jesus himself, who lived a perfect life. He took God’s judgment for sin. The judgment that should have been on us, he took the judgment of sin and he rose again from the dead. Look at Hebrews 10:12 in the NLT. Now why am I going to these scriptures? Because we say we live by the Bible, so I need to let you know it’s in the Bible. 'Cause if you’re having some weird things going on cause you heard your faith hero say something and it’s not lining up with the scripture, you gotta make a choice. «But our high priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins».
So in the Old Testament, you have a whole bunch of sacrifices, goats and doves and all of that, and it only covered their sin. It never got rid of their sin. So Jesus, our high priest, offered himself to God as one sacrifice for sin and it was gonna be good for all times. So you didn’t have to come every year like they had to come. Once you made Jesus the Lord of your life, he was the sacrifice for your sin and it’ll last for all time as long as time lasts, the sacrifice is gonna last. Oh my goodness. And after he did it, he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
Now the Bible is pretty clear that our works don’t help deserve salvation, soundness, safety. Our works on… go to Titus. Titus chapter 3 and 5, King James, and then Ephesians 2 and 9, King James. Everybody on the bus, everybody on the bus, yeah. So it’s pretty clear our own works don’t help us deserve salvation. You didn’t do nothing to deserve salvation. We grew up in tradition where tradition said, «Do good in order to get good. And if you do bad, you’re gonna get bad».
That is the way of the law and the old covenant, the old agreement. But under this new agreement, his mercy showed up, man. Thank God for it. Titus 3:5 says, «Not by works of righteousness. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he,» what? Now you know what mercy is? Mercy is the bad you deserve you don’t get. So God saved you because of his mercy. As crazy as all of us were his mercy could look past you’re crazy.